Dive Brief:
- The U.S. National Seismic Hazard Maps has been updated with new information from the U.S. Geological Survey that increases the risk of damage in some areas, reduces them in others and list 16 states as high risk.
- This year's maps reflect new fault zones that raise risks for San Jose, Vallejo and San Diego, California, and reduced risks in Irvine, Santa Barbara and Oakland.
- In the eastern U.S., a 5.8 quake in Virginia in 2011 has led scientists to conclude that bigger quakes are possible throughout the East Coast. New York, for example, is more susceptible to fast-shaking quakes that endanger short buildings and a little less likely to experience slow-shakers that are a danger to tall buildings.
Dive Insight:
Earthquakes in the earth do not respect political boundaries on the surface, Earthquakes in Japan in 2011, off the shore of Chile in 2008 and China that same year all contributed to what scientists now understand about similar geologic features here in the U.S.